"Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski spoke for herself and her co-host/fiancé Joe Scarborough Friday morning when she told their viewers they support NBC's decision to suspend their frequent guest Mark Halperin over sexual assault allegations.
I’ll speak for both Joe and myself here — our hearts break for Mark and his family, because he is our friend. But we fully support NBC’s decision here. We want to know more about these disturbing allegations, we want to hear the stories, we need to know what happened. And we’re not going to avoid the story just because he’s our friend. We’re going to cover it, and we’re going to pray for everyone involved.
Brzezinski offered these reflections a day after receiving criticism for what many perceived as a much too soft response. In her initial reaction, she told her audience that CNN was reporting on allegations regarding "our friend Mark Halperin" and that they would be following the story.
Since then, she's spoken to some of Halperin's accusers, noting she "feels their pain and understand the difficult position they were in" because she's "been through enough in this business" to know their stories could very well be credible.
However, she notes that Halperin is still her friend and he is innocent until proven guilty.
"Nothing has been proven or adjudicated here," Brzezinski said.
In addition to the NBC suspension, HBO has canceled his miniseries "Game Change" on the 2016 presidential election.
“HBO has no tolerance for sexual harassment within the company or its productions," the network explained.